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hey peeps, I do live sound for various choir + rock band concerts and for the first time we're going to be doing a number with some rapping in. I'm okay at dealing with solo singers, but I wondered if you had any tips for mic + compressors + reverb + etc for rapping?

Should be the usual. SM58 or similar will do ya fine. Keep it dry for the most part. Use a compressor with a high ratio, fast attack, but don't think you need to compress it too much. Just enough to even it out.

That's a wonderful question. There are actually pros and cons with both.

Boosting the highs after all levels are set will push the instrument attack, harmonics or sheer crispness over the edge. It adds a little clarity to the track but you can't over due it. The bad part is, it can potentially be destructive .

When you cut the mids, you are taking away some of the natural sound of the instrument. The fullness is being reduced. However, unlike boosting, I hear this is highly preferred among engineers.

I think you just gotta play and see what works.

The best part about production, every thing you say, goes. There's the technical way to do things, then there's your way. But neither way Is wrong.

No i mean literally, boosting bass and high is exactly the same as cutting the mids, depending on the type of filter. Cutting is better than boosting, or so i read again and again, because it gives you headroom amongst other things

It doesn't have anything to do with phase, it has to do with headroom. There's nothing inherently wrong with boosting on an EQ, you just have to be aware of what your headroom is like downstream from the channel.

When you pull out frequencies, you are getting rid of them. When you boost, you are accentuating them. Don't get me wrong. I cut out frequencies all the time. But personally I've found better results when I use the tips I've provided. It's all perspective though and what you want to accomplish.

You'll want to keep your finger on the 1000 Hz test tone so you can be Johnny On The Spot every time you anticipate a bad word. You should also keep a good 300-400 ms delay on an aux channel that you keep muted, then unmute during the last word of a verse, chorus, or anytime during stage banter.

Yup. As a side note (not related to this concert), the typical way effects like delay and reverb are routed is like this (ignore me if you already knew this, I just assumed):

Post-fade Aux send to input of effects unit

Effects unit out into spare (usually stereo) channel

Use the Aux send on a channel you want to effect to send signal to the effects unit and use the returned signal into a channel to control proportion of dry signal (your input channel) to wet signal (your FX return). Mute the effects return any time it's not needed (like stage banter).

My aux channels are usually full, well the 4 pre-fade ones are anyway. I could use the 2x post fade ones I have for that, would be handy to cut the reverb from the desk. I usually run reverb + compression via the insert and control the wet/dry on the reverb unit.

Yup, the advantage of running a verb through the aux as opposed to an insert is that you can send more than one input to the reverb unit, like all your background vocals or whatever you want to apply the same verb to.

A lot of MCs will rap at a very high volume. They also love to scream into the mic. Make sure your gain staging is ready to handle a very hot signal. A compressor or two is going to go a long way to saving your butt if you get a loud performer.

Most rappers will cup the shit out of the mic, basically making it sound like they're rapping in a cave. Roll off the lows, notch down the lower-mids a bit if they cup the mic. Bring out some 5k or so to give 'em a bit more presence. The other tips on the compression are solid.

I've recently done a few myself and got by fine with some 58's, compression, EQ, light reverb and a gate (Actually I used a dbx1046 compressor/gate). Roll off the lows and highs and be ready to adjust around 2-3K for each different MC. I've found it helps to make sure the MC has a vox monitor somehow, if you don't already, it helps them not perform too loud. Once I even used a pair KRK studio monitors, it's important that they hear themselves somehow.

edit: Minty is dead on concerning the compression, with a 58, a little goes a long way.

Depending on the type of rapper, but a lot of rappers tend to hold the grill of the microphone when they're rapping. This should be alright if they have in-ears, but holding the grill tight like they do will generate more feedback with on-stage monitors. Either ask the rapper not to do so or use the EQ to try and minimize this.

I dunno if anyone said it.. But of your console has buss inserts, use BUSS COMPRESSION on all vox. When everyone comes in with a wicked loud "YEAH" or multiple vocals going at all times, buss compression will control the total vocal level.

hmm, I use an allen and heath zed 436, tend to route all the band to group 1-2, the choir to 3-4 and the solos straight to LR. Though from what another poster suggested I'm probably going to ditch that, which should free up 2 groups channels. I've never tried running the compression on the groups, normally have one compressor per solo mic since the singers can vary so much. Might give it a try.

That's exactly what I'm using- I will usually use the buss comp in addition to individual vocal channel compression too, only to have the bus compression register a GR when more than 1 vocalist is sending signal... Higher thresh/higher ratio, less reaction, more control sorta deal- good luck!